Above: Military helicopters at Sana’a airport.
Leaving Yemen
Leaving Yemen was sad for me. Sana’a had been my home for 5 weeks. I’ve never been to a school that’s been so cool. Where in the world would you find your teacher wearing a gun holster (with bullet holders) to class?
I also loved the climate in Sana’a … at about 7000 feet the temperature was always perfect … sometimes a bit warm in the sun by never oppressive.
I have grown very attached to my friends from Holland, South Africa, Finland, France and the USA. We had enjoyed many meals together in and out of school. I will always remember fondly the dinners on the balcony and the tea and cakes (Arab sweets) on the rooftop at night with the view of Sana’a by night.
I hope there will be another opportunity for me to visit Yemen for an extended period again. I really do wonder about the travel warnings issued by even liberal governments like NZ. They can’t possibly be written by people who have real-life knowledge of these places …
We left the school hostel at 0745 taken by Mohammad. Check-in and immigration was swift. We both had our upgrades to Business Class on the short flight to Dubai, using our Emirates frequent flyer points.
Dubai
It was a different world when we arrived in modern and cosmopolitan Dubai. There are many westerners, Indians, Africans and Russians as visitors and as shopkeepers / traders. Then there are the Arabs who look like westerners, Indians, Africans and Russians. It is just so deceiving even for us … we went into a shop run by Russians and somehow assumed that the people in the next were Russians too but they turned out to be whiter Arabs like Lebanese!
The Landmark Hotel is the middle of everything … from electronics to car parts. It was heaven for Kim.
Food was heaven for me. We had street food of shwarmas before tucking into a beef tikka (quite unusual as I normally associate it with chicken). The strawberry shake and pomegranate juice were divine.